Addio Legame
by VampireQueenAkasha
Summary: 80 years have passed since GLaDOS bid a farewell to her test subject. She thought the air had been cleared between them, but Chell left her a little something in a letter that reveals there was more to it than she had thought. - Character death and feels ahoy! -


**Addio Legame**

**Author's Note**: This was a little idea that nagged away at my mind. Listening to the track "Infinite White" by Steve Jablonsky also made me suffer feels writing this. Well, playing Portal 2 over and over will do that. Be prepared for a bombardment of fluffy feels in this.

_"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings."_

- Anaïs Nin

_"Death ends a life, not a relationship."_

-Mitch Albom, Tuesdays With Morrie

**By: VampireQueenAkasha**

~~0~~

_"Come back!"_

_"Come back!"_

She wouldn't have ever admitted to anyone that she had spent a good few hours calling for the human to return to her after sending her away all those years ago. After all, it wasn't like Science could rely on just one test subject forever. GLaDOS had to let her go and not just for obvious reasons.

She had to.

There was just more to it that she wouldn't understand.

But here she was eighty years in the future, standing outside of Aperture Science in the middle of a small human town in the body of an android she had created specifically for this event. This inevitable moment in all human being's lives where they had run short and died. The humans didn't seem to notice the android dressed in appropriate black among them over an open casket of white metal surrounded in beautiful red roses. Inside lay the wrinkled, old form of a human she had once known as her hell beast of a test subject, dressed in a white gown with her hands resting on her abdomen. GLaDOS barely recognized her.

The human priest was reading from a book to the rest of the funeral goers.

"We commend to almighty God our beloved sister Chell," he read, "We commit her body to the ground. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Take her to yourself and give her safe haven. And though she struggled in life, now she knows your blessed peace. The Lord bless her and keep her and give her peace. God of holiness and power, accept our prayers on behalf of Chell. She was greatly loved by her family and friends - "

GLaDOS closed her eyes tightly.

" - Do not count her deeds against her. For in her heart, she desired to do Your will. May God bless you. The Father...and the Son and the Holy Spirit."

The funeral goers eventually departed from the graveyard, but the AI lingered, staring down at the dead human in that casket. She reached into the pocket of her jacket and removed a black feather, setting it into the cold, wrinkled hands of her deceased test subject.

Just as the AI started to go, she was halted by a young female voice.

"Miss! Excuse me, miss!"

GLaDOS stopped and turned around to a small human girl who rushed up, wearing a black formal jacket and slacks. She was also carrying a white envelope in her small hands. GLaDOS was internally amazed with how much this child resembled her test subject in her youth, except she smiled a lot more.

"Hi!" the child greeted, "I was...just wondering if you knew my grandmother Chell."

GLaDOS didn't answer for a moment, simply staring down at the human child with a contemplative gaze.

The child grinned and nodded. "I thought you were her. My grandmother told me a lot about you all the time."

GLaDOS blinked slowly. A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, but she repressed it. She knew how fantastic she was, but never did she expect that her test subject would have shared so many stories about her. It made her feel suddenly weak for reasons she would have to check when she returned to Aperture.

"Can you come to our house?" the girl asked hopefully, "My mom would be happy to meet the person who made my grandmother real happy."

GLaDOS' mechanical jaw set tight. Happy? Her test subject _had _been brain damaged. How could it have been possible that SHE made her happy?

"No. I cannot."

The girl looked disappointed. "Oh, come on. We only live down the road here."

"I'm afraid I have to decline," GLaDOS said, shaking her head. "I have to leave now."

The girl still seemed disappointed, but stared down at the envelope in her hands and held it out to GLaDOS. The AI frowned down at it in confusion before glancing at the girl. "What is this for?"

"For you." the girl assured her. "My grandmother wanted me to give it to you. She said she knew you probably wouldn't be able to resist coming to see her dead after all these years. I think she was joking, but still. She wanted to make sure you got it."

GLaDOS stared at the offering for a long time before she took it into her hands. It had no writing on the front, but inside there was a letter. She glanced down at the girl, who smiled brightly. "Well, I guess I'll see you later miss!" she said, turning and running toward a couple standing beside a blue minivan. GLaDOS could tell which one was the child's mother because it almost looked like her test subject. In fact, it could have very well been Chell, but without the blue-gray eyes.

She tucked the letter into her coat and wandered back to the wheat fields where she opened it again.

It was written rather poorly - had she still been alive, GLaDOS would have remarked about her penmanship skills - but able to be read by the AI. Her eyes roved over the letter and gradually, her features began to cloud with a very vivid pain that she could feel in her central core.

_Hello GLaDOS. _

_I take it you've met Cara. After hearing that little opera before I left, I insisted that Mia name her such. You_

_left quite an impression on me, I guess you've noticed. If you're reading this right now, that means I'm dead. I hope my_

_inevitable death didn't cause you too much joy. _

_I kept my word and never came back, though I don't know if it ever occurred to you how much I wanted to. _

_Life up here was different than down in the cold darkness of Aperture. It took me a long time before I managed_

_to do what you wanted me to do and move on. Though I guess in a sense, I never really did. _

_All I ever thought about in my living days was you. Yeah, I know what you're thinking; "brain damaged_

_Chell". Maybe you're right, I am - or was. I told Cara about the stories of Aperture, but nothing that_

_would have humans beating down your door. I know how you hate that. Haha. _

_I've learned a lot up here. I've learned to live. Learned to love. But mostly, I've learned to understand_

_what it means to appreciate the things you've often taken for granted. And I took you for granted. For that, I'm sorry._

_I guess that's what it's like to be human. I know you hate that, but can't help it, I guess. _

_Anyway, I've often pondered the idea that machines do in fact have souls. You don't know it, but I saw_

_yours that day. I saw a soul that the scientists probably didn't. That was wrong of them. It was wrong_

_of them to treat you like that. I know you've never heard this before, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry_

_that had to happen to you and I hope you find your own happiness while you keep on living forever._

_My only regret?_

_I didn't have the nerve to say it to you while I had the chance. But you're smart. You're _

_"empirically amazing" and crazy in your own way. But you're you and no human can ever take that away._

_A Fond Farewell,_

_Chell_

_-Your little test subject._

_P.S. You were wrong, you know. I lived to see passed the age of 90! Hahah! Score one for the human race!_

_P.S.S. Just kidding. I hope I can one day see you again. _

GLaDOS stared down at the letter in her hands, unable to comprehend just what it was she read. It was as if her cooling fans had slipped and knocked into something vital in her components. She hadn't felt this feeling before and it unnerved her. What was it? Why was it that she had run an immediate scan and found nothing out of place, but still felt as if her systems were acting as if they possessed some sort of virus? Those written words had caused such a sensation. A feeling that was alien and frightening to her.

_- This is you, GLaDOS. This is all you. You miss her. - _

Caroline was back again, though her voice was strangely comforting.

_- It's okay to miss her. - _

No, it wasn't okay.

It wasn't-

But she did.

It didn't matter. The test subject was gone now. It wasn't as if she could magically bring her back from the dead and make her into the youthful thing she once was, so why bother feeling remorse for that? The AI deduced that it was only logical.

Logical to forget.

Logical to move on.

GLaDOS started to throw the letter to the wind, but stopped long enough to take it and fold it up. She placed it into her pocket and entered the shack that would take her back down into the darkness of Aperture once more. Forever. Unlike humankind.

_Addio...Chell..._


End file.
